Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

LONDON,
ENGLAND--There has been a mix of reactions from advocates representing people
with mental illnesses over British lawmakers' decision to drop a proposed
mental health bill that had been worked on for the past eight years.

United Kingdom health ministers said that they dropped the most recent
draft last week because of ongoing concerns over the effectiveness of the
proposal to protect the public while safeguarding the rights of people with
certain mental illnesses. The draft had gone through so many drafts, and faced
so much opposition, that the ministers said they feared it would never pass
Parliament.

The proposal, which would have affected people in England and Wales,
would have made it easier for the government to detain people with personality
disorders -- whether or not they committed a crime -- if they were considered a
risk to society. The bill also would have allowed the government to force
patients who live in the community to take medication or face hospitalization,
a provision that psychiatrists opposed, arguing it would essentially turn them
into jailers.

Advocates had generally supported an element of the bill that would have
allowed mental health patients to have an independent advocate represent them,
and another that would have appointed an independent tribunal to review
treatment plans for those who had been detained for longer than 28 days.

Ministers said they now intend to go back and simply "streamline" the
existing 1983 Mental Health Act.

Sophie Corlett, policy director of the mental health advocacy group
Mind, responded: "If they simply take all the bits of the draft (bill) that
they have been working on all this time and stick them on to the previous Act,
we will simply end up with a piece of legislation that doesn't fit together but
will have all the problems with the previous legislation."

The group Action for Advocacy responded by calling on lawmakers to keep
the independent advocate provision.

"Being on section in a psychiatric hospital is a daunting, sometimes
frightening experience," A4A director Rick Henderson told the Community
Newswire. "Knowing you have someone independent on your side, fighting your
corner, can make all the difference in the world."

Paul Farmer, whose Mental Health Alliance represents 60 organizations,
told Archant regional news service that the move puts people at further risk of
having their civil liberties violated.

"The government's decision to abandon much of its controversial draft
bill is an unprecedented change of plan, but some of its proposed amendments to
the current mental health act are cause for concern."

Jo Williams, chief executive of Mencap, said: "Mental health legislation
should be used to improve mental health, not as a form of social control for
people who are not ill, and we are glad that the government has backed down on
this point."

The government plans to publish its shorter bill in October or November,
according to The Guardian.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.